An action movie with a very cool approach, a fantastic cast, and a script that redefines the word “mess.”

Writing: Barry Levy gets his first credited writing gig for this movie. Either he’s a hack writer that should be booted from the industry immediately, or somebody royally tinkered with his original script. With such a neat structural hook to play with, the script does so little with it. There’s a couple nice reveals, and a couple nice interplays. But there’s SO much that is either completely pointless or makes absolutely zero sense that one can’t help wonder what the heck happened. The bad guys are not only left a complete mystery, but are pretty much completely undefined. There’s kidnapping involved, I guess. There’s some romantic double-cross going on, I think. These people are doing this for some cause or another, perhaps. Then there’s betrayal from the inside happening for absolutely no discernable reason whatsoever. And don’t get me started on the flacid attempt to use the sitation to bomb some foreign location or another (that sub-plot falls so flat, it’s downright perplexing). The writing team at 24 needed to take a pass at doctoring this script up to a functional level from a character perspective. Motivations and character aside, at least the action and interplay is pretty well staged.

Production: Some top notch action production really helps drag the lousy script up to a functional level. This movie must have gone through a tormentual editing process, trying to make sense of things (well, of the things that even have a remote chance of making sense). That is, to make it logistically come together. Cinematography is pretty dynamic, though it could have used a bit better hand held camera work in some moments. Still, minor complaints are the only thing I would come up with.

Cast: How they talked this cast into the movie based on a script would be beyond me. Still, the cast gives it their all, and they do actually manage to make it work. Dennis Quaid is excellent as the central figure in the puzzle, and he does help hold it all together. William Hurt is a nice bit of casting as the President, though his story is muddled enough to make it tough for any actor to make work. Still, he manages. Matthew Fox must have had some kind of backstory for his character that he worked with from an acting perspective, cause he manages to make a character that has absolutely zero motivational reasoning still seem to work. Sigourney Weaver is always great, and she brings an added dimension to a character that is little more than a functional piece of a puzzle. Then there’s Forest Whitaker, playing the only kind of character that I think he can work in - a total flake. And he’s doing his best dimwitted acting in this role, appropriately, I guess. How somebody would come up with this character in the middle of all this is a bit weird, but Whitaker sure fits the bill.

Music: Atli Örvarsson is a composer I’d never heard of previously, with a handful of TV credits to his name, but he comes through with a pretty good action score. It’s got a nice edge to it. It may fall into a few of the trappings of the modern action score, but it works rather well anyway.

While this may be the weakest movie that Doug Liman has directed, it’s still decent enough entertainment. Since there’s rumor of an announced sequel, perhaps they’ll flesh things about a bit better at that point.

Writing: With a respectable trio of writers on the project, it’s kinda hard to guess how such a cool idea could have gotten so underwhelming. It’s as if a high concept was suddenly re-written to be a simple action movie. There are brilliant moments early on in the film with our “hero” - or shall we say protagonist - such as him watching the news reporting a story that he could easily help in saving lives, and he simply walks on by paying zero attention. It’s kind of like an anti-super hero. I suppose that’s a hard sell to a studio, who would rather have something a little more straight forward to market. The potential for something very antithetical in this modern market of super-hero movies was there, but it was barely touched upon. The end result is something that for the most part just an excuse for odd action scenes.

Production: With some gorgeously energetic cinematography and editing, it’s clear where the advantages of having a director like Doug Liman come in. How is it that Paul Greengrass could take over Liman’s original Bourne film and learn so little in how to REALLY do handheld camera work? Anyway, I’m straying off topic. Jumper’s “jumping” effects seem both slick and simple, and the sound design really helps sell it. There’s no denying that the slick production really helps make this movie work.

Cast: While I thought Hayden Christensen was passable as Anakin Skywalker, I rather liked him in Awake. However, he’s not particularly much good in this film. There’s no denying that the guy is incapable of on-screen chemistry (though he actually came close in Awake). Just about any actor his age could have done at least as good as he did in this film. Samuel L. Jackson does his song-and-dance, playing the role as one would expect. His character is a bit ill-defined and never completely works, but hey, it’s Sam Jackson, so at least it’s a fun character. Diane Lane actually works quite nicely in her brief appearances. Jamie Bell is a highlight as the carefree and morally ambiguous secondary Jumper character. Though the ultimate fate of his character is left bizarrely hanging (you’ll have to pardon that pun once you’ve seen the film). Rachel Bilson tries her darnedest to make the on-screen chemistry work with Christensen, but just can’t pull it off. She’s quite good in the role. And Michael Rooker is certainly a believable casting choice as the remorsefully dead-beat father. However, the true casting highlight goes to the actors cast to play the main characters as children at the beginning of the film. AnnaSophia Robb is an actress I continue to be impressed with in each movie she is in. She’s great in her handful of scenes. And Max Thieriot is immesurably more empathetic and engaging than Christensen is in the role later in life. Add to that the fact that Robb & Thieriot have FAR more chemistry together on screen than Bilson & Christensen, and it kind of makes the rest of the movie all that more of a disappointment.

Music: Doug Liman again turns to John Powell for the score. Like Liman, Powell doesn’t turn in his greatest work with this score, but it’s still a darn fun score. Powell is one of my favorite current composers, and he gets to play around with the music a bit, giving it a nice bounce and pacing. It definitely helps the action out, and makes the harder to sell lighter moments in the movie manage to work. Not a best score of the year contender, but I definitely enjoyed it.

A somewhat flawed horror thriller, which I enjoyed none-the-less.

Writing: This script is a mix of tired horror staples and unique ideas. Some of it feels just like what it is, a beat-to-death Japanese horror genre remake (yes, ANOTHER one), and some of it doesn’t. Even some of the tried-and-true elements somehow feel a bit fresh, like having the protagonist as a concert musician. People who suffer disabilities like blindness in films rarely hold down 9-to-5 corporate jobs. They almost always have to be some creative arts kind of character. And the good ol’ donated organ bit is another tried-and-true genre element.

Production: Tech aspects are done well, from cinematography to sound. I think the slick editing of Patrick Lussier, who knows his way around these kinds of films, is one of the production highlights.

Cast: Here is one of the strongest components of the film. Jessica Alba might not be the greatest actress of her generation, but I’ve always enjoyed her performances none-the-less. She does a nice job with this character, and pulls it off quite well. She gets to play off two fantastic actors, which I’m sure help. First is Alessandro Nivola (who you might remember from having so fantastically played the character of Pollux Troy in Face/Off), who does a nice job as Alba’s rehabilitation therapist. He does a nice job with the oddly unsympathetic character. Then there’s Parker Posey, one of my favorite actresses, who plays Alba’s sister. Sadly, she only has a few scenes, and gets to do little more than play the supportive (and somewhat guilt-driven) sister. Still, any chance to have Parker Posey on screen is better than nothing.

Music: One of my favorite film composers, Marco Beltrami, comes through with an effective score. He does a particularly nice job during scenes where he needs to integrate the film score with the main character’s job as a concert musician. Overall, it’s standard horror genre scoring, done with Beltrami’s typically lush and lyrical style.

A surprisingly good crime thriller. And get this - it’s one of those incredibly rare movies with fairly accurate portrayals of computers.

Writing: A good crime drama needs an original hook of some kind to build the story around, and this script comes up a pretty good one. The idea is fairly simple - have a web site with a live streaming video of a murder victim. But the killer only sets up the method of murder. The actual kill is delivered slowly as more and more people view the web site, effectively making each person who views it an accomplice to murder. Kinda neat idea. Around this story, you have a fairly downplayed FBI cyber crime unit in Portland, Oregon.

Procution: Like the writing, the production does a nice job at sticking to basics. While the murders require some clever production design, the settings are very basic and real. From the average suburban houses to the realistic and conservative FBI offices, it all just feels like the real world. Cinematography is solid enough and editing gets the job done nicely. Nothing to complain about. Gregory Hoblit is a talented enough director to get the job done right.

Cast: While I’m not a big fan of Diane Lane, she does a nice job in this lead role. Billy Burke does a nice job as the local detective she teams up with, and the two of them have a nice chemistry on screen. My favorite bit of casting is that of Colin Hanks as her FBI cyber crimefighting partner. His character is a nice addition to the mix, and Hanks is great, as always.

Music: Christopher Young is a fish in water with this kind of movie, and his score is naturally excellent. He really knows his way around this genre, having done dozens of films in the last few decades that fit the bill. For this entry in the genre, he comes through yet again. He has one particularly outstanding cue titled “Blinking The Code” that makes the score impressive all by itself. This might not be his best crime thriller score, but it’s certainly darn good.

An unexpectedly excellent closing chapter to this venerable franchise. While the body count is high, this fourth film favors the gritty reality of the first (First Blood) than the super-human feats of the second and third.

Writing: You know, back when another Rocky movie was announced, I was skeptical. But then I was totally surprised by the film, which was a well written and performed closing chapter to the franchise. After that experience, I actually had my hopes up going into this movie, figuring Sly would come through with another surprisingly good closing chapter to his other most notable film franchise. Sure enough, he did it again. Unlike his closing chapter of the Rocky saga, which is a sweet, charming movie, this is a starkly violent character drama. Depicting the all-too-real ethnic cleansings of Burma (stepping on a great many toes to not hide their portrayal of Burma’s recent history of violence), this is a powerful yet basically simple story.

Production: Absolutely nothing to complain about here. Everything about the production of this film is top notch. From the harsh, gritty location shooting to the gorgeous cinematography, the look of the film is perfect. The sound design is a perfect blend of subtle and brutal. Editing is conservative but spot-on. And the on-set effects are appropriately nasty.

Cast: Stallone takes on a likely final performance as legendary John Rambo. Gone is the over-the-top bravado of the second and third films, as he channels much more of the John Rambo we first met in First Blood. Sure, when he’s dropped into the middle of the action, there’s nobody you’d rather have on your side of the fight. But when he’s not mowing down dozens of soldiers, he’s a humble and reserved character (it’s not too hard to draw comparisons between Rocky Balboa and John Rambo in that manner). One wonderful bit of casting for this film is that of the fantastic Julie Benz (of Buffy/Angel fame). She does a great job at appealing to Rambo’s better nature. Benz and Stallone have a great chemistry on screen. And Benz does a great job portraying the overwhelmed aid worker in the midst of violent chaos. As one might expect, she’s not afraid of getting dirty for most of the film. The rest of the characters are cast well, filling out the expected crew of mercenaries and thugs nicely.

Music: Sadly, Jerry Goldsmith would not live long enough to do the music for this (assumedly) final chapter of the saga. After having turned in three absolutely fantastic scores for the earlier films, I would have loved to have heard what he would have done with this chapter. Stepping in to compose this entry is Brian Tyler (who had previously done the replacement score to Richard Donner’s film Timeline, which would have been Goldsmith’s final score, after Goldsmith was unable to rescore the recut film). Tyler does a fine job with it, too. He lays in Goldsmith’s wonderful main theme, particularly in the final scene of the film (a scene that beautifully bookends the opening of the first film). The rest of the score is a nice mix of new material and references to previous Goldsmith scores for the franchise. It’s a worthy follow up.

A barely adequate mix of a great many genre horror films that have come before it.

Writing: Perhaps it’s just the fact that there have been so many remakes of the overpopulated Japanese horror genre, that nobody fairly judges these films on their own merits any more. If this were the first one that had been made, would I be so unimpressed with it? Probably not quite as much. Even still, this isn’t one of the strongest of said tired genre. It has a few interesting little hooks into the genre and new ideas, but they are pretty far and few between.

Production: This is an amazingly average production. I don’t think I recall a singal thing worth mentioning, either good or bad. This is as genre standard as they come.

Cast: Shannyn Sossamon is a talented actress, and she does seem to at least try to make things work. It’s not an extraordinary effort, mind you, but she makes it work. Ed Burns does much the same as her, making his character work well enough without any truly remarkable aspects. Ray Wise is well cast as a reality TV producer, though his character is bizarrely sidelined with little-to-nothing to do with anytihng when all is said and done. The best bit of casting is giving one of the supporting roles to the fantastic Azura Skye. Her quirky originality automatically brings something to the best friend role, helping make things work a bit better.

Music: Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek could score this movie in their sleep. And they kinda do. Nothing to really make much note of (sorry for the pun). Like most everything in this film, it’s nothing particularly bad. It just there, doing its job.